December 3, 2020

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. – Psalm 33:22

Light the first candle of advent, the candle of hope.

Is it possible for the love of the Lord to be on us even when we are unaware? Even if we find ourselves with little or no hope, does God’s steadfast love remain with us? I hope that we would answer with a resounding, YES!

So often we feel that hope and love are feelings that are with us when life is good, when things seem to be going well. However, the truth of hope and love in the Bible is that they are ever present with those who need them, because they are aspects of our God. When our true hope is in the Lord, we know that present situations, or circumstances have no real effect on how much God loves us. Even when we are deep in sin and regret, even when we are as far away from God as we think we can get, we need be reminded that the love of the Lord is steadfast for us. God’s love has the power to overcome any darkness, and I believe that is something in which we can and should place our hope.

The psalmist reminds us that even when we find ourselves in a place of waiting, like we are during the season of advent, the steadfast love of the Lord helps us to rekindle and know such hope. This year, waiting has become more common. We wait on a better news of a slowing pandemic, we wait on approval and distribution of a vaccine, we wait for the day we can gather with friends and family without fear, some of us wait, longing to return to church. Still, even in this time of waiting the steadfast love of the Lord is with us.

May the steadfast love of the lord rekindle in us the hope of Christ today, knowing that better days are to come. May we keep our hope alive in the One who is and was, and is to come.

Grace & Peace,
Sam